The planet Cait is an M Class world with five continents. Three are very similar, one is far south and quite frozen, and the fifth is on the equator and has thick vegetation. The rest of the planet is ocean. It has a population of 5.2 billion people known as the Caitians.

The largest continent is Larrrtov. It is almost completely tall grass savanna. There are several rivers that flow through the flat, open spaces. The annual rainfall is enough to encourage the growth of several types of trees and keep the grass tall in most places. There is a small forested strip that spans the southern coast.

The continent of Pirrrem is the second largest. It is, for the most part, a smaller version of Larrrtov. The only difference is size and shape. There is evidence that, at one point, there was a land bridge from Pirrrem to Larrrtov. It is suspected that the original Caitians migrated from one continent to the other.

The last of the savanna continents is Canrral. It has a dry season that lasts for about 3/4 of the year. It doesn't receive enough precipitation to allow grass to grow as tall as on Larrrtov or Pirrrem. It wasn't heavily populated until domestication of animals made hunting unnecessary.

The only heavily forested continent is L'narrr. It is located directly on the equator and is covered in tropical forest. It was never, and still isn't, heavily populated. It has never come as much use, except a few resorts which attract off-world visitors.

The last continent is Virrrtam. It is located near Cait's southern pole. The only vegetation is a small area of tundra at its northern-most point. It is uninhabited, but at one point it was the destination of exiled citizens from Canrral. It does not cover the south pole, but the icecap does extend and join with it. The boundary of actual land wasn't known until orbital scans were conducted in the early phase of Caitian space exploration.

Contents

First Contact With The Federation

First contact between the Federation and the Republic of Cait was in 2205. The Caitian patrol vessel CIC L'akarr made contact with the USS Horizon near the Beta Aurigae system. The crews exchanged greetings and established peaceful relations. For the next ten years, Cait and the Federation were heavily involved in trading. The Caitian system is rich in Dilithium in the outer moons of the system and provided a very profitable relationship.

In 2234, after much delegation and preperation, Cait was admitted to the United Federation of Planets. The Caitian Military was allowed to remain as a system defense organization, but was mostly absorbed into Starfleet. Starfleet Acadamy set up an admissions testing center in the capitol and established Starbase 189 in orbit of Missatt, the 5th planet in the Cait system as the main center of trade for the region.

Caitian Society

The first communities of Caitians, other than family units, were hunting parties. They were typically nomadic, following whatever game animals they had a taste for.

Eventually, animals were domesticated, and hunting bands became, over time, exceedingly rare. Animals could be raised in larger numbers in one place. Caitians began to settle in larger numbers, centered around a local herd. These were essentially communes, each person helping to maintain the herd and, in turn, getting the food they required from it. There was no hierarchy, though. Each family was, more or less, independent of the others.

This has been the basic model for Caitian society, though it has been extensively modernized. Now, people live around an economic hub of a city or town. All business is done in the commercial center. When business is done, they return to their homes, which are still spaced away from each other but within short distance of the economic center.

The largest cities have come along only recently. They were made mostly for the purpose of accommodating off world visitors and regulating planetary issues.

Space Exploration

Society continued to develop into a technological one with the first orbital satellites being launched in 1862. Called K'assira, the first orbiting satellite led to development of the CSEI (Caitian Space Exploration Initiative). An international organization that was funded planet-wide.

In 1885, Cait got its first view of itself from orbit. The planet was mapped in high detail for the first time in history from orbit. Within the next 20 years, space probes were launched to explore the rest of the Caitian star system, and regular space missions were performed to experiment and research.

Technology was developed somewhat rapidly, as Caitians began to want to explore the stars. The first major target was Sotarr, the 4th planet in the Caitian system. Similar to Mars in the Sol system, it was believed that Sotarr may contain life in one form or another. The Caitian moon is a small chunk of rock, half the size of Earth's moon. As a result, Caitian tides are not very spectacular. The Caitian moon is simply called Rir Assi, or "Sky Rock" and is not held in much regard on Cait. Sotarr however was viewed as a major stepping stone for space exploration.

As such, most space development was geared only towards the Sotarr landing. It took about 30 years to plan, develop, and impliment, but in 1921, Cait landed on Sotarr successfully. THis achievement led to colonization in 2024 of Sotarr.

The Sotarr landing sparked even greater interest in exploring space, and before long it because almost all the Caitian people were doing. Starting in 1925, Cait was mapping the stars and trying to find out if they were alone from the orbiting group of 3 space based telescopes.

They discovered and named many now familiar star systems including Vulcan, Sol, Andoria, Tallar, Romulus, and saw the same galaxies that others found such as the Andromeda Galaxy, the Spiderweb Galaxy, and many others found in most astrological texts of other worlds.

Warp Development

Theories from as far back as 1850 postulated about different ways to travel vast distances in space at fast rates. One in particular had a theory that would revolutionize Caitian society. The author had written down the calculations on a whim, thinking they would not make any sense, but when he crunched the numbers, he found that while he was far from a workable solution, his calculations had not been disproved as the same time.

For decades, Caitian scientists worked on this theory, and by 1976, they finally had the technology to attempt to develop a workable dilithium powered warp engine. Many prototypes failed, and the program suffered setbacks, but finally the design was refined enough to provide for a workable long range test.

In 2010, Cait broke the warp barrier. In a 60 second flight that took the Caitian warp craft "P'ellam" to the asteroid belt, then a successful return trip, Cait finally had the means to explore the galaxy at the speed of light and faster. In coming years, the design was refined the refitted, and in 2058, Cait broke the Warp 5 barrier to Warp 5.1. Warp 5 remained the standard for Cait for the next 80 years.

Located in a rather barren region of space, the closest star system to Cait is 138 light years away. This alone caused Cait to take longer then normal to make contact with anybody.

Still, Cait began to expand outward into Space with small craft similar to Earth's NX fleet and developed a military chartered with exploration of the galaxy, and defense of Cait in the event of hostile contact. To this point though, no contact had been made with another species.

Caitian First Contact

In 2120, Cait made first contact with another species. The first race they encountered were the Kzinti. Finding the race similar to themselves in appearance, it was common belief that most intelligent species would share a similar appearance to themselves as well. Of course scientists believed otherwise, knowing that it was probable that under different conditions, life evolved much differently then Caitians did.

Cait and Khintzi relations were stable, as both species were new to space, and the Khin even attempted to have Cait join them in establishing a government over the territory between their worlds. Cait though, declined and remained trading partners with the Khintzi for many years.

In 2204, Cait made contact with a Vulcan scout ship. At this point the Caitian fleet was substantial for a species as "young" in space travel as they were. Vulcan had not explored the region within the last 200 years, and did not know that Cait had achieved warp travel.

Using the Vulcans as middlemen, Cait eventually made contact with the Federation starship USS Horizon. Finding the Federation to be very similar to themselves, IE: relatively new to space, and friendly, Cait opened trade negotiations with the United Federation of Planets in 2210.

Shorty thereafter, relations improved further when the Federation did not try to put pressure on Cait for more dilithium production, which their asteroid belt is rich in, and was a major source of trade. Unlike the Khintzi, the Federation respected Cait as having its own free will. Cait was pleased by this, and when they were offered a chance for Federation membership, they accepted the offer in 2234, becoming the 93rd planet to join the UFP.